Looking for once in a lifetime tastings in Portugal

[Tym Lewis]

Hello everyone,

I am dragging my wife to Portugal in March 2022, to taste ports in honor of my 50th birthday. Ideally we can travel for 10 or 11 days. I have friends that meeting us wherever I tell them too, so that they can join us for the "port tastings" part of the vacation, ideally a two or three day period within our l dates. Tasting port that I can't find, is cheaper/better/older than what I can find in the USA is why we are going to Portugal . This is why I am posting here, instead of a generic Portugal travel site.


This post is in hopes of learning about the port tasting suggestions when visiting Portugal for the first time. I have already asked about basic recommendations in another post.

A little bit about my port tasting experience and preferences:
I eventually figured out that I really like port, once I was introduced to a vintage port. Warre’s 1985 vintage
In 2013 I hosted my first port tasting.
I have hosted nine port tastings so far, although most of them only had four to six different ports.
My current recommendations to people that ask me about port:
Grahams 6 grape reserves will teach anyone that port is worth drinking at a low price point. For the past couple tastings I start with this no matter what the theme is, just to show us a good basic port.
Warre’s unfiltered LBV is my $30 recommended port. Just discovered this one.
Graham’s 30yr tawny is my $100 recommended port. I try to get one or two of these each year
Quinto Do Noval 40 year tawny is my $180 recommended port, and currently my favorite, although it has been a few years since I have been able to find a distributer that carries it for New England.
I tell people that if they want a consistent good quality port to go with an aged Tawny. 20 years is a good price per quality for many people.
Vintage port is more varied. Some are amazing, others are disappointing for the price paid.
For some reason I have discovered I do not like Sandeman tawny ports. It has been a few years since I tried one.
Blind port tastings have taught me that price often reflects which port is better…. But the difference in quality is not always worth the difference in price.
Pairing port with the correct food is an art form. The better your pairings, the more people will enjoy drinking port.
The oldest port I have had was a 1980 Anderson Colheito.
I have only had a handful of tawnys aged 30 and 40 years.

Any recommendations about the following topics welcome:

English speaking tour guide that can show us some tailored tasting experiences. Local ambiance, hard to find(or old) ports, and tasting/port education would all be welcome.
I am hoping to visit Quinto Do Noval. Anyone have any recommendations about visiting them? timings, location, who to contact?
A touristy place like Grahams or Taylor, unless you all agree there are better places for a “touristy” experience.
Recommendations on how to schedule port tastings that are not the generic ruby/white/10 yr tawny? Maybe at a Quinto that does not ship to the USA?
Recommended places which include port tastings outside of the Porto area.
Recommended days of the week to taste port

Any other Portugal port tasting recommendations that I need to know?

Currently the only known plans are to fly in and out of Lisbon in March, and have people meet us for a couple of days in or near Porto.
Disclaimer: My wife does like port, but she is totally content with a $5 bottle of ruby port paired with excellent chocolate.

Thanks!

[Glenn E.]

Hi Tym,

You have nothing to worry about regarding English, as just about everyone in Portugal (but especially in Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia) speaks English.

As Eric mentioned in the other thread, both Baccus Vini and LaDo (Lagar D'Ouro) are great places to have a tasting of smaller producers. They are both on the cais da ribeira, though LaDo is down a side street and so not actually on the water. Both have Ports ranging up to 40 Year Old (and sometimes older), both on the tawny and ruby sides of the spectrum. But more so on the tawny side.

As far as the lodges go, I always recommend Ramos Pinto for a tour. Their lodge is attached to their old HQ building, and that building is now a museum. Their tour includes the museum which makes it the best lodge tour available, at least in my opinion. You need to get a reservation so that you can choose the language of the tour... 1-2 days ahead of time should be more than enough. It's often possible to schedule your tour the morning of the tour if you get there early enough.

The Sandeman lodge also has a small museum inside, and is probably the best "touristy" lodge tour that you can get. Conveniently, Sandeman and Ramos Pinto are pretty close to one another on the Gaia side of the river.

Since a couple of your favorite Ports are Graham, their lodge is also a good tour. Plus there's the added benefit of their Vinum restaurant which makes a trip to Graham's lodge a great lunch or dinner trip. The Graham's lodge also has higher-quality tastings available and you might even get to taste your oldest Port there from one of those "upgrade" tastings. As I recall they have a 1977 on one of them.

The Quinta do Noval shop on the waterfront is nice, but it's basically just a store and tasting room where you can purchase Port to taste. AFAIK you cannot schedule a visit to the quinta up above Pinhao unless you have a contact to set it up for you, but that may have changed since the last time I looked into it.

Another good place to stop is the Quevedo tasting room, which is as you start up the hill toward the Taylor lodge and World of Wine. Frederick will take good care of you there!

[Frederick Blais]

as Glenn mentions, come to Quevedo and I'll make sure you'll enjoy your time. Send me an email if you want to make sure I am working on that day. Fred AT quevedo dot PT if you see what I mean.

CHers

[Eric Ifune]

Niepoort is opening up it's lodge to tourists, but I'm not sure what the experience will be. We only saw it during refurbishment.

The World of Wine in Porto has opened up it's wine school. Again, not sure what the experience will be but would be interested in attending some courses in the future. https://wow.pt/wine-school/

[Mike K.]

The Kopke tasting room in Vila Nova de Gaia is excellent. You start out downstairs where you select the wines you would like to taste. They offer port going back to the 1930's and the ladies will offer excellent suggestions of flights or comparisons. It is not free, but the selection is excellent, and it keeps out the tourist masses. You are then taken upstairs to a lovely tasting room where you are seated at your own table and given a selection of chocolates to accompany your tasting. A few minutes later your wines arrive at the table.

[Andy Velebil]

Kopke is awesome for older Tawny's

Set up a private top end tasting (I forget what they call it) at the Graham's Lodge as there is usually a few older VP's also available to try.

Baccus Vini and LaDo (as mentioned). BV has some older Tawny's you can try.

Niepoort cellar is worth the visit even if you only taste some younger things. It's about as close to an original dark damp lodge as you'll get.

See Fred at Quevedo.

If you are up river in the Douro (check to see what's open that time of year first)

Mourao if you can

Quinta do Bomfim tasting room usually has some other things to try.

Wine and Soul. they don't have a lot of older things, as they are a relatively new-ish producer by Douro standards, but they make awesome dry wines and tawny's. Their VP's are just now reaching the upper tiers.

Quinta do Noval. but i don't know how their new reservation experience is at the Quinta as I've not done. Though I've been there many times and it's a wonderful place nonetheless. (I find their tasting room in Gaia average experience).

[Tym Lewis]

Thanks so much everyone.

We are customizing a tour of the Douro Valley, and I have no concept of how good a proposal this is. Many of the Douro Valley tours include a boat ride, and this one does not. Is that a loss?

Anyone here want to review these locations (good views?) and port houses?

- wine tasting at Quinta da Pacheca (DOC and old Ports)
- wine tasting and lunch at Quinta do Bucheiro (DOC, Ports and three course meal - pre set menu)
- Vertical Ports tasting at Quinta do Bomfim (three Tawnys and three vintage Ports)
- wine tasting at Casa do Romezal - Gueda Wines (DOC and young small producer Tawny and White Ports)

Thanks!

[Al B.]

Thanks so much everyone.

We are customizing a tour of the Douro Valley, and I have no concept of how good a proposal this is. Many of the Douro Valley tours include a boat ride, and this one does not. Is that a loss?

Anyone here want to review these locations (good views?) and port houses?

- wine tasting at Quinta da Pacheca (DOC and old Ports)
- wine tasting and lunch at Quinta do Bucheiro (DOC, Ports and three course meal - pre set menu)
- Vertical Ports tasting at Quinta do Bomfim (three Tawnys and three vintage Ports)
- wine tasting at Casa do Romezal - Gueda Wines (DOC and young small producer Tawny and White Ports)

Thanks!

Hi Tym,

That's a pretty good custom tour. I wouldn't worry too much about the boat ride, especially if you get the chance to travel to the Douro by train. The boat ride is lovely and the scenery spectacular - but the train tracks run along the side of the river for most of the parts which have the great views. And you can always do one of the 3-8 day river cruises another year.

Pacheca make some superb olive oils. If you get the chance to try some of those when you visit, I recommend you do so - ask if you have to.

Make sure you have some time at Bomfim to walk around the museum, there is some fascinating stuff there. If you have the chance to have lunch (or dinner) at Casa dos Ecos in the Bomfim vineyards, I also highly recommend that.

But you've got yourself a great itinerary. Please do report back and let us know what you think of the places, the people and the wines (and olive oils) you try when you're visiting.

Al

[Jim Ham]

Last year I visited Quinta do Bomfim. It was amazing, the people are great and the atmosphere was just great.

It was one of those places in my life that I would not leave

[Reid B.]

For my money it's Niepoort. It was one of the best wine experiences of my life.

You can book online, and then pay at the end of the tour. Just book the basic tasting and you can still choose to taste anything you want. Truthfully, I lost track of everything we tasted.

There is no reception area, or visitors center, or bus parking zone. There isn't even a sign or their name on the gate.

The place is a legit working cellar, but they have added a bar/retail area, which I think they still don't know what to do with.

I've started blogging about all the cellar tours in Gaia, and I'll be posting my Niepoort trip soon, so I'll link to that when it's up.

It was an amazing experience with a great guide.

[Andy Velebil]

I would be remiss not to mention the private tour, tasting and lunch at Quinta do Vesuvio. Not cheap, but an excellent line up of ports and table wines. You have the place to yourself (unless a family member shows up to say hi) which is a remarkable never-forget type of visit as it generally isn’t open to the public.